China Is Said to Rescind Invitation to Taiwan Children’s Choir

The Puzangalan Choir with the new president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, left, and vice president, Chen Chien-jen, at their inauguration in Taipei on May 20.CreditChiang Ying-Ying/Associated Press

By Austin Ramzy

June 16, 2016

HONG KONG — For a children’s choral group, it was a big stage: singing the national anthem at the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan last month. But it came with a cost. The Puzangalan Choir had been scheduled to perform in Guangdong Province in southern China in July, but the organizers of that event canceled the invitation, according to the official Central News Agency of Taiwan.

Tsai Yi-fang, the choir’s executive officer, said the organizers of the Guangdong concert said that the choir had become “too sensitive” after the performance, on May 20, in Taipei, the newspaper The Liberty Times reported. The students are members of the Paiwan, an indigenous group from southern Taiwan. They performed an adaptation of the national anthem of the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name, that included elements of traditional Paiwan song.

“Singing the national anthem at the presidential inauguration was a great honor for us, so we decided to go ahead with it, although someone had warned us of the possible consequences,” Wu Sheng-ying, the choir’s musical director, told the Central News Agency.

While Taiwan’s previous president, Ma Ying-jeou, pursued closer relations with China, Ms. Tsai has called for a much more cautious approach to cross-strait ties. China has taken several steps to put pressure on her new government, including holding military drills days before her inauguration and resuming diplomatic ties with Gambia, a country that previously recognized Taiwan.

China, which considers self-ruled Taiwan to be part of its territory, tries to limit international recognition of the island and is harshly critical of expressions of Taiwan’s own identity. After A-Mei, a pop star from Taiwan, sang the national anthem at the inauguration of President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan in 2000, she was barred from performing in mainland China.

Mr. Chen was the first president from the traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, which Ms. Tsai now leads.

An Fengshan, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China, said on Wednesday that people in China did not have an “anti-Taiwan sentiment,” but that they were instead opposed to supporters of Taiwan independence, the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The cancellation was not without a silver lining for the children’s choir. The group had been short of funds to travel to Hungary for a performance in August. But after the news emerged that they would not be able to go to China, Ms. Tsai said she would contribute 500,000 Taiwan dollars, or about $15,500, toward the trip. After a lawmaker announced a fund-raising drive, an additional $20,000 was raised in a day, The Liberty Times reported.